Monday 31 August 2015

Books I'm Squeeing About in September

It's almost a new month, almost September, and I'm quietly freaking out over how quickly this year is passing. Seriously, how is it almost September already?! Luckily there are a whole host of truly awesome books out this month which make the fact that time is passing quite so quickly much more bearable, because it means these gorgeous beauties are almost upon us! It's another money spending month, but with these books finally up for grabs I may as well be shrieking 'TAKE MY MONEY AND LEAVE ME TO READ'...

1st September
A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn

London, 1887. As the city prepares to celebrate Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee, Veronica Speedwell is marking a milestone of her own. After burying her spinster aunt, the orphaned Veronica is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry—and the occasional romantic dalliance. As familiar with hunting butterflies as she is fending off admirers, Veronica wields her butterfly net and a sharpened hatpin with equal aplomb, and with her last connection to England now gone, she intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.
But fate has other plans, as Veronica discovers when she thwarts her own abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron with ties to her mysterious past. Promising to reveal in time what he knows of the plot against her, the baron offers her temporary sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker—a reclusive natural historian as intriguing as he is bad-tempered. But before the baron can deliver on his tantalizing vow to reveal the secrets he has concealed for decades, he is found murdered. Suddenly Veronica and Stoker are forced to go on the run from an elusive assailant, wary partners in search of the villainous truth.


It's a new Deanna Raybourn book, another Victorian era book, and I have been impatiently making grabby hands ever since it was announced many months ago. Whilst I may not have the physical book in my hands yet, I have read it and it is GLORIOUS.
You can read my review here!

You can pre-order this book on Amazon here!


1st September
Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas

Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she's at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past . . .
She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die just to see her again. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen's triumphant return.
Celaena’s epic journey has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions across the globe. This fourth volume will hold readers rapt as Celaena’s story builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.


656 pages guys! 656 pages of gloriousness! I think this is one of the most anticipated reads of the year for a lot of people, and it's certainly one in our household, because it's not just me eagerly awaiting the latest Throne of Glass novel - I recently got my husband hooked too, and he finished the third book cursing and rending his clothing that he had to wait a measly thirty days for the fourth book... I'm not sure yet if I'm going to take pity on him and let him read it first, or just buy two copies...
You can pre-order this book on Amazon here!

3rd September
The Next Together by Lauren James
How many times can you lose the person you love? 
Katherine and Matthew are destined to be born again and again, century after century. Each time, their presence changes history for the better, and each time, they fall hopelessly in love, only to be tragically separated. 
Spanning the Crimean War, the Siege of Carlisle and the near-future of 2019 and 2039 they find themselves sacrificing their lives to save the world. But why do they keep coming back? What else must they achieve before they can be left to live and love in peace? 
Maybe the next together will be different...
A powerful and epic debut novel for teenagers about time-travel, fate and the timelessness of first love. The Next Together is told through a mixture of regular prose, diary entries, letters, "original" historical documents, news reports and internet articles.


Another hugely anticipated book for me, I have been desperate to read this book ever since that gorgeous cover and blurb started gracing the interwebs. I got stupidly excited when I received an ARC, and then gnashed my teeth when my mother nabbed it to read before me (she enjoyed it by the way...) and then I finally got my little mitts on it and loved it.
You can read my review here
You can pre-order this book on Amazon here!


10th September
Fans of the Impossible Life by Kate Scelsa

This is the story of a girl, her gay best friend, and the boy in love with both of them.
Ten months after her recurring depression landed her in the hospital, Mira is starting over as a new student at Saint Francis Prep. She promised her parents she would at least try to act like a normal, functioning human this time around, not a girl who sometimes can’t get out of bed for days on end, who only feels awake when she’s with Sebby. 
Jeremy is the painfully shy art nerd at Saint Francis who’s been in self-imposed isolation after an incident that ruined his last year of school. When he sees Sebby for the first time across the school lawn it’s as if he’s been expecting this blond, lanky boy with a mischievous glint in his eye. 
Sebby, Mira’s gay best friend, is a boy who seems to carry sunlight around with him like a backlit halo. Even as life in his foster home starts to take its toll, Sebby and Mira together craft a world of magic rituals and secret road trips, designed to fix the broken parts of their lives. 
As Jeremy finds himself drawn into Sebby and Mira’s world, he begins to understand the secrets that they hide in order to protect themselves, to keep each other safe from those who don’t understand their quest to live for the impossible.


Ok that blurb had me excited, and then I found out that Mira also suffers from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and I had to read this book immediately. Because we're always talking about more diverse books and we are getting them, which is awesome, but I have never seen a character in YA fiction who has what I have. Now admittedly the Chronic Fatigue is only half of it, but I was so ridiculously excited to finally see a YA character who mirrored me even a tiny bit that I actually ran around the flat shrieking. (And then had to have a nap, but you know, it's the principal of the thing...) 
You can pre-order this book on Amazon here!

10th September
The Secret Fire by C J Daugherty and Carina Rozenfeld
French teen Sacha Winters can't die. He can throw himself off a roof, be stabbed, even shot, and he will always survive. Until the day when history and ancient enmities dictate that he must die. Worse still, his death will trigger something awful. Something deadly. And that day is closing in.
Taylor Montclair is a normal English girl, hanging out with her friends and studying for exams, until she starts shorting out the lights with her brain. She’s also the only person on earth who can save Sacha.
There’s only one problem: the two of them have never met. They live hundreds of miles apart and powerful forces will stop at nothing to keep them apart.
They have eight weeks to find each other.
Will they survive long enough to save the world?


There has been so much buzz around this book that it's fallen onto my radar just through that and stayed there buzzing excitedly and making me want to read it now. I have to admit that I haven't yet read of Daugherty's books yet, but I'm really excited to get stuck into this one and see what everyone else has been talking about.
You can pre-order this book on Amazon here!
(Available on Kindle from September 3rd)



15th September
Lock & Mori by Heather W Petty
In modern-day London, two brilliant high school students, one Sherlock Holmes and a Miss James "Mori" Moriarty, meet. A murder will bring them together. The truth very well might drive them apart.
Before they were mortal enemies, they were much more.
FACT: Someone has been murdered in London's Regent's Park. The police have no leads.
FACT: Miss James "Mori"Moriarty and Sherlock "Lock" Holmes should be hitting the books on a school night. Instead, they are out crashing a crime scene.
FACT: Lock has challenged Mori to solve the case before he does. Challenge accepted.
FACT: Despite agreeing to Lock's one rule--they must share every clue with each other--Mori is keeping secrets.
OBSERVATION: Sometimes you can't trust the people closest to you with matters of the heart. And after this case, Mori may never trust Lock again.


I love Sherlock, both the original stories and the BBC modern adaptation. And then earlier this year I discovered 'Every Breath' by Ellie Marney which rocked my little socks and featured teens James Mycroft and Rachel Watts and was utterly brilliant. So naturally I now want to read anything else that looks like it might live up to the high bar set by Ellie, and I am incredibly curious about this one, because GENDERBENT MORIARTY and modern day London and genius teens. Just give it to me now.
You can pre-order this book on Amazon here!


15th September
The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore
For twenty years, the Palomas and the Corbeaus have been rivals and enemies, locked in an escalating feud for over a generation. Both families make their living as traveling performers in competing shows—the Palomas swimming in mermaid exhibitions, the Corbeaus, former tightrope walkers, performing in the tallest trees they can find. 
Lace Paloma may be new to her family’s show, but she knows as well as anyone that the Corbeaus are pure magia negra, black magic from the devil himself. Simply touching one could mean death, and she's been taught from birth to keep away. But when disaster strikes the small town where both families are performing, it’s a Corbeau boy, Cluck, who saves Lace’s life. And his touch immerses her in the world of the Corbeaus, where falling for him could turn his own family against him, and one misstep can be just as dangerous on the ground as it is in the trees. 


Another one that has been loitering around on my radar since the start of the year, this just appeals to me in so many ways. Night Circus feel to it - check. Forbidden love - check. Warring Houses - check. Yest to all basically.
Plus the prose is absolutely divine and the story quietly wraps around  you until you're thoroughly invested in these characters and their strange and magical lives.
Keep an eye out for my review in the next couple of weeks!

You can pre-order this book on Amazon here!

22nd September
Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson
The first book in a new trilogy from acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Rae Carson. A young woman with the magical ability to sense the presence of gold must flee her home, taking her on a sweeping and dangerous journey across Gold Rush–era America.
Lee Westfall has a secret. She can sense the presence of gold in the world around her. Veins deep beneath the earth, pebbles in the river, nuggets dug up from the forest floor. The buzz of gold means warmth and life and home—until everything is ripped away by a man who wants to control her. Left with nothing, Lee disguises herself as a boy and takes to the trail across the country. Gold was discovered in California, and where else could such a magical girl find herself, find safety? Rae Carson, author of the acclaimed Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy, dazzles with this new fantasy that subverts both our own history and familiar fantasy tropes.


I adore Rae's books, so she's an auto-buy author for me anyway, but this blurb just has me all kinds of excited. It just sounds so deliciously unique and brilliant. I am literally beside myself with excitement and cannot wait for the end of the month for this one.
You can pre-order this book on Amazon here!


29th September
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone...
A convict with a thirst for revenge.
A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager.
A runaway with a privileged past.
A spy known as the Wraith.
A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums. 
A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. 
Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don't kill each other first.


Confession time, I have not yet read any of Leigh's books. I KNOW, I AM A BAD PERSON. Seriously, I'm working to rectify this asap. They've always been on the to read pile, I just hadn't managed to get there before, but when I read that blurb and found out it was loosely connected with her original trilogy that sealed the deal for me, because GUYS, THAT BLURB. It makes me all gleeful and happy because HEISTS. Have I told you guys how much I love Heists? Because my undying love for Heist Society should be enough of a clue, but just in case it wasn't, wait for the splosions of excitement when I get my little grabby hands on this one...
You can pre-order this book on Amazon here!

So there you have my debt inducing month of bookish awesomeness! Are there any books I've missed that you think I need to get onto right this second? Or are there any books I've made you intrigued to nab a copy by my witterings and capslockings? Let me know in the comments below!

4 comments:

  1. QUEEN OF SHADOWS! I AM AM SO NERVOUS FOR THIS BUT EXTREMELY EXCITED! Sorry for all that caps lock but oh my word *flails* I totally forgot that Six Of Crows is coming out this month, wow it is soon, EEP! So many good books coming out this month! :D

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    1. NEVER APOLOGIZE FOR CAPSLOCKING EXCITEMENT. I AM TOTALLY THERE WITH YOU! I cannot wait to get my hands on it, I NEED IT NOW. There are going to be a lot of crazily happy/sleep deprived people over the next few days!

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  2. Omggggg LET ME FLAIL OVER ALL THE THINGS FOR ETERNITY. *hyperventilates* I can't even decide which I'm more excited for! I'm dying for Six of Crows and Walk on Earth a Stranger and Fans of the Impossible Life (!! omg yay for books about things no one really talks about!!) and now I'm needing to look up The Next Together. XD My TBR doesn't thank you. ;)

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    1. SO MUCH AWESOME IN ONE MONTH - HOW TO SURVIVE?! Your TBR pile TOTALLY THANKS ME, or it will once you have consumed all the awesome, but in the mean time whilst it is perilously large and wobbly I can see how that would be less awesome... I cannot wait to hear what you make of all the fab books this month! *GLITTER*

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